Nonviolence News: Myanmar's Flower Strikes, Paris Converts Farmers & How To Spark Nonviolence News Conversations

Photo Credit: Locals in Myanmar mark the 79th birthday of jailed civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and stage a protest against the military regime. (Photo: CJ)

Myanmar's Flower Strikes, Paris Converts Farmers & How To Spark Nonviolence News Conversations

Editor's Note From Rivera Sun

How can you get the most out of Nonviolence News? In addition to savoring the 30-50 stories over your coffee, you can also use Nonviolence News as a discussion starter with friends, families, and colleagues. It's common to talk about the news ... but we rarely do it through the lens of nonviolence. Most of the articles in Nonviolence News don't even mention the word - it's up to us to articulate that everything from protests to debt relief to a SolarPunk bus tour (see this week's Creative Action section) is part of the powerful, transformative field of practices, tools, and solutions that fall under the umbrella of nonviolence.

Here are 3 ways that you can read our stories and then share about them with friends.

Favorite Stories: Look for stories that stand out to you and explain why they're so interesting. For example, I grew up on an organic farm in a French-speaking region ... so one article that fascinated me was how the city of Paris worked to convert an upstream farming region to organic methods. The farm run-off from conventional practices had been polluting one of the city's main water sources. As someone who cares about farming and is concerned about the urban-rural divide, this story showed me how a big city and a rural region can cooperate for a big systemic change that was previously unthinkable.

The Takeaways: Share a lesson, strategy tip, or action idea you learned from a story. For example, Myanmar recently held "Flower Strikes" calling for the release of political prisoners. Instead of just another boring protest, the use of a symbolic item - flowers - paired with the potent action of strike made me curious to learn more. In photos, marches, rallies, and shrines, people all over the country took action on the issue. The flowers swiftly fostered a sense of visible connection between the actions. It's an idea that many of our issues could use.

The Big Picture: Scan the headlines, look for sweeping themes, and share the Big Picture with your friends. Are there a ton of labor strikes happening? Is climate action turning up the heat this week? Is there a worldwide crackdown on protesters? Notice and talk about the broad, thematic trends of what's going on.

For example, so many good things happened this week! In Kenya, President Ruto capitulated to protesters demands to drop an appalling finance bill. Bolivians thwarted yet another coup attempt. Los Angeles approved medical debt relief for 150,000 residents. A Norwegian fund dropped investments in the US construction giant, Caterpillar, over concerns that it is bulldozing Palestinian homes in the West Bank. After 14 years, Julian Assange is now free. Amazon canceled plans to use natural gas, and instead will recommit to renewable energy sources.

Find Nonviolence News stories to share here>>

I hope you have fun talking to people about these stories this week. Share these stories ... our friends - and our world - need to hear them.

In solidarity,
Rivera Sun